The Bethesda Blog announces Hearthfire, a DLC pack coming to the Xbox 360 edition of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on September 4th. The announcement does not mention other platforms, but this and Dawnguard were both announced as 30-day Xbox exclusives, so this is not unexpected. This short trailer accompanies this announcement:

With Skyrim’s newest game add-on, Hearthfire, you can purchase land and build your own home from the ground up – from a simple one-room cottage to a sprawling compound complete with an armory, alchemy laboratory, stable, garden, and more. Use all-new tools like the drafting table and carpenter’s workbench to transform quarried stone, clay, and sawn logs into structures and furnishings. Even transform your house into a home by adopting children.

Hearthfire releases on Xbox LIVE next week (September 4th) for 400 Microsoft Points.

Jivaro wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 14:46:A console DLC. I doubt PC users are going to see much need for this. Honestly, I have zero problem with that. I am a PC user, but I will take the mod community, the CK, and the mods over DLC any day. Every single piece of DLC for this game could be console only and I wouldn't care. The community can do better and often does. (of course, you have to sift through the crap too, but hey..nothing is perfect!)

Absolutely true. There are quite a few excellent mods now for player homes, from the modest to the opulent. A few let you customize aspects of it, and at least one lets you build it from the ground up. It will be interesting to see how Bethesda's measures up to the best of the mods already out there.

Let the XBoxers have this one. I guess if I had to grump it would be that they're wasting time that could be spent on the next meaty, questy DLC.

A console DLC. I doubt PC users are going to see much need for this. Honestly, I have zero problem with that. I am a PC user, but I will take the mod community, the CK, and the mods over DLC any day. Every single piece of DLC for this game could be console only and I wouldn't care. The community can do better and often does. (of course, you have to sift through the crap too, but hey..nothing is perfect!)

Can't see myself getting back into Skyrim until there's a whole bunch of content, on a Steam sale.

TBF I regret not playing Skyrim how my friend did - new thief char for the thief quests, new mage char for the mage quests, etc. Would have been awesome if they had built it so you could have multiple chars on the go in the same "world" as it were.

Fion wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 13:32:Yep. I don't know about paying $20 for essentially the same thing as that mod (though by the sounds of this, it's more complex). I haven't even gotten Dawnguard yet because of all the poor reviews.

Dawnguard isn't bad, it's just not really $20 good either. It has some nice features to it and parts of it can be really fun, but it's kind of expensive for what it is since you can buy some full games for that now.

Hmm. Sounds like it's turning into "THE SkyrIMS". All it needs to be complete is the ability to invite everyone in town over to a BBQ, convince them to go swimming and then have the ladder leading out of the pool mysteriously disappear.

Fion wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 13:32:Yep. I don't know about paying $20 for essentially the same thing as that mod (though by the sounds of this, it's more complex). I haven't even gotten Dawnguard yet because of all the poor reviews.

More like average reviews than bad (metacritic says 73). It's just more Skyrim, no more and no less. It's $20 worth of content easily when compared to other DLC, but it's just not really special or different.

Verno wrote on Aug 28, 2012, 13:36:Looks like it's only about $5, 400 MSP is 5ish USD. I don't know if I care enough to pay for such a specialized thing but oh well, it'll give me something to grab on a steam sale sometime.

Same thought here, maybe for 99 cents. Reminds me of the "bad DLC" from Oblivion.